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Film: The Fourth Victim (La última señora Anderson)
Year: 1971
Director: Eugenio Martín
Writers: Vicente Coello, Santiago Moncada and Sabatino Ciuffini
Starring: Carroll Baker, Michael Craig and Miranda Campa
Review:
This was a film that I heard about on podcasts. It popped up more than once so it went on my shorter list of ones that I need to check out sooner. It was then selected when I used a randomizer to decide what to make as a featured review on Journey with a Cinephile for my New Year, New Movie segment. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this starred Carrol Baker as I like her work in these gialli films.
Synopsis: a wealthy Englishman finds his third wife dead. After the police discover that his first two wives had also died suddenly, an investigation is launched. Meanwhile, a new neighbor moves in and becomes very interested in Arthur (Michael Craig).
We start this by seeing a small village where Felicity Downing (Miranda Campa) is riding her bike. We then shift over to a large estate where there is a woman in the pool. She is slumped over. This place belongs to Arthur. The woman in the pool is his wife, Gladys (Maria Gustafsson). It turns out that she died. Felicity gets Arthur’s attention before he leaves.
They go about the funeral arrangements and Inspector Dunphy (José Luis López Vázquez) interrupts before he finishes. The reason is that this is the third wife of Arthur, all have died of different causes and he has had an insurance policy out on all of them. The company that is their insurer is requesting an investigation. Inspector Dunphy is leading it and he’s from New Scotland Yard.
Arthur tries to lay low and he comes home to find that someone is using his swimming pool. It is Julie Spencer (Baker). She’s been using it while he was gone and didn’t think it would be an issue. Arthur is intrigued by her and seeks her out since she is his neighbor. The two get close and spend time together over the next week. It gets to the point where she wants to go to the next level and he tries to leave the country. She stops him, taking out an insurance policy on herself, making him the beneficiary and says that she wants to get married. This throws him off, but he has fallen for her.
They are married at once. The priest is Enzo Garinei. A man from the insurance company is the witness along with Felicity. They question if she is making the correct decision and if this marriage will work out. There are secrets here that need to be revealed and not everyone is who they say that they are. Julie realizes this when she has a run in with a strange woman outside of her house, played by Marina Malfatti.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this is an interesting giallo film. It caught my attention from this opening sequence where Gladys dies. I could see the authorities and the insurance company being worried about the number of wives that passed away after being married to Arthur. We don’t normally see this with the husband as it is normally a ‘black widow’ concept with a wife having multiple husbands die mysteriously. I did like that idea. There is also an interesting flip to the concept that gets revealed the deeper we go into this.
Now that I’ve set that up, I did want to say here that I’m not going to spoil the ending or the reveal. What I want to say here though is that this film does well in making you question if Arthur did in fact kill these other wives. I know the first one died in a car accident. The problem there is that she drove his car and the brakes went out. I don’t recall what happened to his second wife, but they do an autopsy on Gladys. It turns out she was dead before she was in the pool. I did like the concept here that Arthur needs to prove that he didn’t kill her and that he’s not planning on killing Julie. My only gripe here is that this thread goes nowhere, outside of the police showing up to prevent her from being killed. The issue there is that another reveal has happened, shifting the focus away. I did think that Craig was solid here, but the story just lost its way.
I am going to be careful here, but what I’ll say is that Julie might have spent time in a mental hospital. That adds an element since she was sent there due to going mad, because it was thought that she killed her first husband. When that information was given, I loved it. There’s a local member of the police, I believe played by Victor Harrington, who was a part of that investigation so that was a good touch. There is something tense here that maybe if Arthur did kill his previous wives, that he could be after someone who is just as dangerous as him. Even though I don’t love how this plays out, I did enjoy that part of the story.
Let me then shift over to discuss the rest of the acting performances. I did like Baker in this role. Something I’ll admit here, I did guess how she was connected. There was something additional that I didn’t guess so that is something I’ll give a bonus to. Campa works as the housekeeper who is fond of her boss. I like how she’s willing to lie to keep him from being arrested. Vázquez is interesting here as Inspector Dunphy. He’s from New Scotland Yard. My issue is that he’s bumbling. He also disappears for a long stretch so I’m not sure if this aspect was written well enough. I also like Garinei, Gallardo and Malfatti, along with the rest of the cast. They help to push the story to where it ends up.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I did think that this was well-made for the most part. The cinematography and framing were good. This is limited to the effects used, but that is because it is more about the mystery and developing that. I did like Arthur’s place. Julies was even better. We aren’t there as much, for good reason. Other than that, I did enjoy the soundtrack used here. There are elements of jazz. Not a top-level score for a gialli, but still fit what was needed.
In conclusion, I don’t think this is the best giallo film that I’ve seen Baker in. I still enjoyed my time here. There are good elements to the story, like learning about the past of Arthur and then his new bride, Julie. They rush into marriage and that adds tension. The acting was good by Baker and Craig. The rest of the cast push them to where they end up. My only gripe for the story is that it seems like learning if Arthur killed his wives was important and then we just seem to lose that thread. I’d still recommend giving this one a watch as I rather enjoyed my time. Again, not the best in the subgenre, but I’ve seen worse.
My Rating: 7 out of 10